


It's a Date

by Secchar



Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: AU, Cheesy, Drabble, M/M, Miscommunication
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-04
Updated: 2019-09-04
Packaged: 2020-10-10 02:14:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,353
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20520272
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Secchar/pseuds/Secchar
Summary: Kyungsoo wants to punch his past self in the face.





	It's a Date

Kyungsoo is self-aware enough to know that this is a situation he’s put himself into. He’s dug his grave and so now he has to lie in it. When he had made this discovery about himself, at the time, he had been fine with it. Now, though, it’s approaching unbearable. Granted, at the time, he first made the realization, he hadn’t been in love with Jongin.

Life is mocking him. 

“Let’s go on a date,” Jongin says to him when they’re walking to the café. It’s their lunch hour, and they both decided they were sick of eating ham-and-cheese sandwiches from the company canteen.

Kyungsoo feels his heart soar and then plummet within the next second. This has now become a common occurrence. “Yeah, okay. What are you thinking?”

“There’s that Italian place a few blocks from my apartment. We can eat there and then go back to mine and watch a movie.”

Kyungsoo hums to buy himself some time so that his voice won’t give away his clattering heart. “Yeah, sounds good. Straight after work, then?” 

“Yup,” Jongin says popping the ‘p’. “It’s a date.” He sounds entirely too amused.

The rest of the lunch hour is non-consequential conversation. The kind you have with your best friend of many years. By the time they get back to the office, Kyungsoo and Jongin have decided that in a zombie apocalypse the best place to go is Jeju Island and if need be, Jongin’s Survival Training from when he was 7, will ensure that they can live on the ocean for a week. 

Kyungsoo’s going to take this time to explain the terrible predicament that he has found himself in.

Kyungsoo suffers from a lack of emotion, he thinks. People describe having emotions all the time. Kyungsoo does not experience this phenomenon unless he’s been drinking, and then he texts all his friends how much he loves them and how they should hang out. He only kind of regrets having made plans when he wakes up sober in the morning.

He met Jongin and Baekhyun and Minseok in University and they made him want to try. His emotional constipation suddenly seemed like a hindrance, and so he made multiple efforts to be the kind of friend he thought they deserved. He hung out with them, helped them in any way he could, and tried to tell them how much he loved them whenever he could. Sure, he felt like an imposter a lot of the times, but the guys all seemed to appreciate it.

From this, came the flirting, which among close friends, Kyungsoo learned, is totally acceptable. In fact, it’s even fun. Kyungsoo loves flirting with his friends. And so he pushed it, which resulted in this conversation with Jongin:

The setting is Jongin’s apartment. Kyungsoo is on the couch, playing on his phone. Jongin’s in his kitchen, making grilled cheese, the only thing he can cook. Kyungsoo looks up from his phone.

“Hey, I don’t think I can do the dance showcase in the park on Saturday. I’m going on a date with Minseok.”

A clatter is heard from the kitchen. Jongin walks over so that he can see Kyungsoo. He looks shocked and uneasy. “A date with Minseok? Are you guys dating? You didn’t tell me.” 

Kyungsoo waves a hand dismissively. “No, no, it’s not like a real date. It’s just what I like to say when I go out with my friends like one-on-one.” Reader, Kyungsoo would like to inform you that this is where he fucked up.

Jongin relaxes enough to lean against the wall. “Oh, so like you and I go on dates all the time.”

Kyungsoo nods. “Yeah, you and I go on dates all the time.”

_If there were ever a time I wish I could travel back to the past and punch myself, it’d be then. _Kyungsoo thinks not for the first time. It’s his fault completely. It is, but Jongin had completely take Kyungsoo’s linguistic choice, and incorporated it into his own syntax. Ever since that conversation, three years ago, Jongin has constantly used the word ‘date’ to describe hanging out with Kyungsoo, and only since about a year-and-a-half ago, has it become the problem it has today. Though, to be fair, Jongin only became really heavy-handed with the word about a year ago, which hasn’t helped the situation at all.

He’s dug his grave, so now he has to lie in it. What a great mantra to have to repeat to repeat to himself on the daily. Of course there’s a simple solution of talking to Jongin, but that’s not going to work. Kyungsoo cares too much about his friendship with Jongin to ruin it with an unwanted confession. Immediately after this, though, is the thought that maybe confessing will not go badly and he’ll be with Jongin the way he wants. It’s a sweet thought, too sweet really. It fills his heart with hope that’s warm and soft, and then it takes on a sharp edge of yearning. 

It’s here he has to beat his feelings back before something, he’s not sure what, threatens to consume him, and make him do something he regrets. Like Hope. He must be sensitive today, because these types of thoughts are running rampant all afternoon. And it’s not like he can distract himself with work. He’s a paper pusher for a mid-size insurance company. So by the time Jongin comes to collect him for their ‘date’, Kyungsoo’s a mess.

It must show too because Jongin expresses concern during their dinner and even offers to let Kyungsoo out of their movie night. Even as emotionally vulnerable as Kyungsoo feels tonight, he declines to head home early. The only thing that makes his situation bearable is that he gets to hang out with Jongin as much as he does.

As the night progresses, the thoughts get worse, as they do, and Kyungsoo’s practically jittery with…something. Emotions are not his forte.

The two of them are on Jongin’s couch watching a terrible TV movie about high school girls forming a pregnancy pact. They love tearing movies like this apart, but Kyungsoo can’t focus enough to form a single quip. He’s tucked into Jongin’s side, head resting on his shoulder, which is another kind of Hell Kyungsoo regularly pushes himself through. Maybe he’s masochistic.

“So I’ve asked you this multiple times this evening, but are you okay?”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” Kyungsoo replies way too quickly to be even remotely sincere.

“Really, because there’s like a lot of material here. Like a lot. One of them legitimately said they thought being pregnant would be fun.”

“I guess I’m a little distracted,” Kyungsoo admits. That’s true. That’s somewhat true. “How was your day?”

“Good, good. My parents called and said they were going to come visit next weekend.”

“Oh, that’s nice. It’s been a while.” Kyungsoo likes Jongin’s parents. They’re cool and accepting. Very different from his own parents.

“They asked about you.”

“Oh, that’s sweet,” Kyungsoo replies. He’s going through another spike of yearning, so he’s not really paying attention to what's happening. It doesn’t help that Jongin’s swiping his thumb back and forth across Kyungsoo’s shoulder.

“Yeah, apparently some of their friends wanted to know how long we had been dating.”

That snaps Kyungsoo out of his reverie. “What?”

“Yeah,” Jongin doesn’t sound fazed at all by what he’s saying which is so bizarre. Why doesn’t Jongin sound shocked about this? They aren’t dating.

Jongin continues, unaware of Kyungsoo’s confusion, “I told them it’s been about a year. You would say it’s been about a year too, right?”

Jongin sounds innocent, but he’s got that sly edge to his voice that he gets when he wants something. And Kyungsoo is so ready to give Jongin what he wants. Except Kyungsoo is a classic overthinker, so there’s a lot of heavy editing between the phrase he wants to say, ‘Yeah, that sounds right’ and what actually comes out, “A year is a long time to date without kissing.”

Jongin doesn’t miss a beat. “Well, I think I can fix that.”


End file.
